In the dark

Earthquake | Haitian-Americans hope to contact loved ones and quickly send aid back home to family and friends

BROOKLYN, N.Y.-When Haitians living in America call their loved ones back home to learn of their safety, there is sometimes a flash of contact-a mere minute or so-before the line goes dead. They keep calling back, however, hoping for another brief connection, but most of the time the lines to their loved ones remain silent.

"We keep on trying because you never know when the power will be restored," said Joseph Dormeus, executive director of the Bedford Haitian Community Center in Brooklyn. He has been trying to contact his friends and family in Haiti since yesterday but has not heard from anyone: "The city is completely in the dark."

Although the 7.3-magnitude earthquake has swallowed up their friends and families' houses and hospitals, many Haitian-Americans know only what the rest of America knows-the news on websites and television, which tells them that up to 500,000 people may be dead and up to 3 million Haitians may have been affected by the disaster.

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The quake is the most severe the area has seen in 200 years, so the devastation goes beyond what any of the Haitian-Americans have ever seen, even the ones who survived Hurricane Gustav in 2008. Dormeus said that other disasters in Haiti have never reached this magnitude, mainly because the earthquake's epicenter was only 10 miles from the capitol, Port-au-Prince. During the hurricane, Port-au-Prince lent aid to the countryside, but now city's hospitals and government buildings have collapsed, and the impoverished countryside is unable to reciprocate.

At St. Jerome church in Brooklyn, Marie LaRouche, who has not been able to reach relatives who live in or near Port-au-Prince, prayed for her family and victims of the disaster. "My aunt is the only aunt I have left there," she told the Associated Press. "We are still recovering from a hurricane. We can only leave it in the hands of God."

Relief organizations around the world are collecting food and donations and sending volunteers for relief efforts, which is something Haitian-Americans believe they can contribute to. "A lot of people call me and say, 'What are you going to do and how can we do it?'" said Dormeus. His center is collecting food and clothing and hopes to fill a container of donations, which they will then take to Haiti. Dormeus said to minimize the cost of transporting the container, they will go whenever they can get enough donations to fill it. People have promised donations but so far, the small office is empty. "I hope it will not take long," said Dormeus.

Other Haitian-Americans would like to return to Haiti themselves to find their loved ones and provide assistance, but Dormeus said it was impossible since the airlines have suspended flights to Haiti. Dormeus said there is "anxiety-a lot of anxiety, frustration. They don't know where their relatives are; they don't what they are doing, if they are alive."

Down the street in Brooklyn, Gerard Previl, a Haitian-American who has lived in United States since 1965 and no longer has family in Haiti, said it is time for the country to decide what they are going to do for long-term survival: "Time to teach people to plant the tree. . . . You have to put iron in the house to hold the house. The tree holds the land."

Previl is right that erosion and deforestation has worsened the effects of the earthquake. The slums that are built on the sides of hills are sliding away with the earthquake's landslides. Previl, a frail older man, expresses the fear that must be on most Haitian-Americans' minds: "If I were in Haiti, I'd die."